By Jamie Thomas
Having already put together one of the most dominant domestic campaigns in WBBL history, winning all three titles they’ve competed for so far this year, the London Lions are understandably favourites to complete an unprecedented quadruple as the WBBL Playoffs get underway this week.
Although their depth is incredible, what has been most impressive about the Lions this season is the cohesion of a roster full of players that are individually among the best talents in the WBBL, yet have all been utterly selfless in their own way in pursuit of glory.
We caught up with their sharpshooter, Cassie Breen, ahead of the playoffs to discuss the team’s chemistry and more as they prepare to go for a clean sweep of titles this year.
“Our whole team came in and had hardly been together before we played that first game against Gran Canaria to qualify for EuroCup, so straight away we were in a do-or-die situation and sometimes you must bend a little bit for a team like this to be flexible enough to succeed – there’s no room for ego or taking anything personally – and we’ve just carried that mentality forward.
“Of course, internally, I may at times have felt like I have more to prove or whatever, but in the end it is a team game and it is always about the team’s success, or ‘we’ before ‘me’ as Mark (Clark) tells us all at practice.
“You must bend for the team to be great, and I’ve been happy to do that as have all of my teammates. We have a team where our bench could pretty much start on big teams anywhere, but we’re so determined to be great that we can put ourselves to one side for the benefit of the team.”
“It is a different experience and energy for me.”
If anybody has had to ‘bend’ as Breen puts it, then the three-point specialist is a prime candidate for that, as she’s playing significantly less minutes and lost the regular starting position that she held with such distinction last year.
In spite of that though, and testament to Breen’s talent, the American is scoring just three less points per game (17.1ppg compared to 19.6ppg previously) even though she is playing 10 less minutes per contest (21mpg compared to 31mpg previously). Breen detailed her evolution at length.
“This year we’re surrounded by even more great players than last year, so it helps me to evolve because I’m seen in a different light as a player that comes off the bench to land the takedowns or knockouts after the starters have fought the first and second rounds.
“I haven’t come off the bench since my freshman year in college, so it is a different experience and energy for me, but I’ve found momentum in that because I know I have less time to play as hard as I want to as the team needs different things from me, but I feel like I’ve adapted to that well.
“Last year the team needed a lot of scoring and a higher volume of shots, playing a high-tempo offence with Kennedy (Leonard) at the one, me at the three and Shanice (Beckford-Norton) at the two, with us basically running for 40 minutes, but this year we’re more methodical, utilising an inside-out game to get the shots that we want more.”
“This season I’ve just tried to go with the flow more.”
If you’ve been an eagle-eyed follower of Breen since her arrival in the WBBL at the start of last season, you’ll have noticed that she sometimes disappears for spells in the team’s warm-ups. This isn’t uncommon for any players – you see so many of the top talents having treatment from the physios and so on until the last moments before preparations ramp up for tip-off – but for Breen, she’s working on something more specialised!
After an accident during her college years, Breen picked up some interesting techniques involving a pencil to help her with her depth perception – making one of the sharpest shooters in recent memory even sharper! – and Breen detailed the origins of her specific techniques.
“It was introduced to me by my athletic trainer at Central Michigan in my senior year. I had been in a car accident right at the beginning of the season which really affected my vision and depth perception, so these techniques were introduced to me to help.
“A lot of it comes from scientific evidence in baseball, because there’s a lot of throwing and catching and change of focus and so on, so I would use it in the same way to help with concepts in basketball such as being able to come off screens and turn my head to locate the basket more quickly and so on.
“I haven’t done it as much this year, to be honest, but I’ve found it really helpful – especially as a shooter – and this season I’ve just tried to go with the flow more. It has certainly been super beneficial though, especially for my game and the way I like to play.”
“We know everybody really wants to beat us.”
Having gone into last year’s playoffs with real momentum behind them but arguably not favourites to win it, this year the pressure – at least externally from the media – will be quite different, as the Lions are certainly favourites to be walking out of the 02 Arena with their fourth title of the year.
Breen discussed those expectations and how the team are preparing to retain their WBBL Playoff title.
“We’re going against the best players in the league every single day in practice, so our preparation for performing in the playoffs starts there, and then it is just about understanding that the next game is the most important and that we’ve got to be at our best for that, whoever we’re against.
“What sets us aside from a lot of teams in the WBBL is our depth, and we know that, because practices are like gamedays for us due to the quality we have in the group, and we keep our levels high every day throughout the week so that when games arrive, we’re ready for them.
“We know everybody really wants to beat us, but we can’t worry about anybody else – we just need to focus on ourselves as we have been and continue to play the basketball we’ve played all year, then if we do that we have a great chance to be successful.”
Get your tickets for the WBBL Playoff Finals and join us for the showpiece finale to an epic season at London’s 02 Arena on May 15th here!